MUST-SEE MOVIES

MANCHURIAN TIGER

This won Best Film at the Shanghai International Film Festival last year.Xu Dong needs to find a new home for his pet dog,now that his wife Mei Ling is pregnant,and places it in the care of a cash-strapped builder named Ma Qianli.The dog’s death leads all three into a collision course,not least because Mei Ling stumbles upon a secret Xu has been keeping from her.It’s full of dark humor and poetic lines,all set in a messy,freezing small-town in the Northeast,or Dongbei.It’s remarkable how aesthetic Dongbei’s brick and concrete rustbelt becomes when seen through the lens of director Geng Jun,whose penchant for wide-angle shots is reminiscent of Wes Anderson.

RIVER OF SALVATION

Single and parentless,30-year old Rongjie works as a foot masseur while trying to keep her younger brother Xiaodong out of trouble.But when Xiaodong’s girlfriend becomes pregnant,this leads Rongjie down the rabbit hole of traumatic memories from her own extramarital pregnancy.It’s a somber portrayal of the lives of those at the bottom of society,striving to create a better life for themselves but being held back by the world around them.Li Yanxi won the Best Performer award at the FIRST Film Festival last year for her portrayal of Rongjie.

B FOR BUSY

Don’t be put off by this film’s terrible English title—this is a romcom fresh enough to earn 8.3 points out of 10 on Douban.Golden Rooster-nominated director and actor Xu Zheng plays Lao Bai,a divorced middle-aged man who lives in Shanghai and teaches the elderly how to draw.Unlike the typical romcom featuring the young and beautiful,this film follows Lao Bai’s quiet,restrained courtship of three very different,strongly independent middle-aged women.B for Busyis distinctly Shanghainese,complete with jokes,street scenes,and references to food only locals would truly understand.Director Shao Yihui (who lived in Shanghai for six years)boldly shoots whole scenes in Shanghai dialect,which impressed many Douban reviewers,even if they did have to read subtitles to understand.

I AM WHAT I AM

The latest animated film to come out of China.Unlike previous CGI offerings,stuffed with ancient history and myth,I Am What I Amis set firmly in the present.Ah Juan is a “l(fā)eft-behind” teenager in a village,who dreams of taking part in a traditional lion dance performance,learning from old masters,and setting up his own dance troupes with two young sidekicks.Some reviewers have praised this flick for its striking graphics and for focusing on the place of traditional Chinese culture in the modern world.But it has also been criticized for giving its animated characters small,slanted eyes,and accused of pandering to Western stereotypes of East Asians.–ALEX COLVILLE